Thank you! This helped me fix our 16-year old AO Smith water heater. It took me about 45 minutes to do the job (but I'm a bit slow). I used both compressed air and our shop vac to clean the filter out. When I re-lit the water heater, it lit right up and hasn't burned out since (about 5 days ago). Not to mention, the water is hotter than before this repair -- so it seems like the unit is functioning even better than before it went out.
I just got my water heater replaced about 5 months ago, during the end of summer. I got this model as well from your video. Just this month I’ve had the company come and see why it wasn’t giving me hot water. Found out it was this screen you are cleaning. Well it only lasted a week and I’m back to square one. I already dislike this water heat because of the amount of times I will have to open and clean out this screen.
I was a phone man for 30 years and went in a millions homes over the years to install and do phone repairs (this was before the cell phone days when your phone hung on a wall) but I digress. What struck me about this video was that lady yammering on and on. That used to happen all the time and maybe its because they get nervous and just gotta talk about ALL kind of stuff while you're trying to work on stuff but wow some of them just never shut up. Lol... Some things never change. God bless you ladies. Talk away.
@@hanginlaundry360 ya know I actually didn't mind.. most of them were very nice.. and to be honest a lot of them were raising multiple pre-school age children and naturally that was their world for years on end. I get it. I think they enjoyed just talking with another adult. If they seemed nervous like they felt they had to say something but didn't know what I would try to put them at ease and ask 'So does grandma get the first call with your new phone?".. and they would laugh and say 'Ya.. how did you know!" I would say 'Grandma always gets the first call !' Take care hanginlaundry! 👍😉 .
Chuck, thanks for the videos! My pilot has been going out. I changed the thermocouple because I saw a diode looking thing cracked. The pilot lit and the burner turned on but eventually completely shutdown; burner and pilot. I ordered a thermostat because the settings (A, B, C and Very Hot) made no difference in temperature or shutting down the burner. However, I went down to inspect my pre-cleaner screen and did not find one. 14 year old water heater and no pre-cleaner screen. I looked under the water heater and the metal screen is completely clogged. Two dogs and my son doing wood work probably took its toll. I'll remove everything and thoroughly vacuum and clean with pressurized air. Again, very informative video.
I carry a Dewalt cordless wet/dry vac exactly for those two filters, found a vac attachment with a slim tube and a slim brush at end and worked perfectly for the internal screen filter.
Thanks Chuck! The instructions with the "New boxed A.O. Smith LP HWH" had NOTHING detailed verbally or pictorially to solve this "Very Common" maintenance requirement. U Da Man!!
Awesome vid! This is the best method I've seen for cleaning flame arrestors! I cut a 4" circle in my flame arrestor B4 I installed it new. Voided warranty but will always have combustion air. Thanks for sharing this!
8:11 “all because somebody went and put a gasoline can by a water heater”. True story: When I was 5 years old I was down in the basement and apparently some how tipped over a can of gas or who knows maybe my dad set it too close to the water heater and never admitted it. Mom heard heard me start to scream, came downstairs and I was on fire. I’m 57 now and still have a completely scared right leg. I guess I was sort of “that guy”. Funny thing is I just put in a new water heater last weekend and after reading the manual I seen the instructions to clean the perimeter filter every 3-4 months. I though to my self what a pain in the a.. that is going to be, and wondered why because my 30 year old water heater never had a filter that I knew of. Well now it makes sense that the gas chamber is sealed for safety now! Thanksfor sharing your videos.
I could not understand this filter idea. Like water heaters work fine for like over a hundred years without ever needing a filter. The water heaters needed to be elevated in garages and any other place where flammable vapors from like a gasoline spill could be ignited by a water heater's pilot light. Even so, if there were enough fumes a fire explosion could accurr. It would make sense if there could be something to stop the water heater from igniting flammable gasses that may form around a water heater. That would be a flame arrester. That would be a thick screen on the air intake to the water heater flame box. This would allow air to enter but would snuff out a flame front from flammable vapors coming into contact with the water heater's flame. This is not a filter but flame arrester. Every thing works fine untill the arrester becomes clogged with junk. Everything makes sense to me now. Now for some some reason the industry needs to quit calling this a filter and use the correct term, a flame arrester.
Lady could chittychittty chitchat... I think I sound that way yoo I with contractors and it's how i learned how to save hundreds not having the furnace freaking blown on for me! Duuuuuumb. Thanks for this
Hi, I've noticed that my burner assembly doesn't have a bracket or slot to hold down the assembly. Is it normal or it's missing? The whole assembly is secured by just 2 screws at the front. Thanks
Hello, yesterday my hubby fixed our water heater following your video. Thank you! Now when the when we’re using hot water the heater makes noises is that normal? Thank you!
It is normal when sediment builds up inside the tank from all the hard water. I'm sure if that is removed by flushing or vacuuming out your popping noises will go away.
Pliers on the gas valve fittings makes me cringe. Not judging. You do you brother. You do fine work. I enjoy your videos. Interesting for a plumber from Kansas.
Worried opening that compartment would void warranty on my less than 4 yr old heater. From the window it appears the pilot ignites but only a few inches of the plate ignites. The blinking blue light appears to be "heartbeat" meaning no errors. Exhaust is slightly warmer with no gas smell. Cust service line busy all day. Any ideas?
Thanks George, I get a bunch of calls of pilots not staying lit. The old thinking was thermal coupling is bad. Then I got burned many years ago and finally called tech support and learned about the combustion proof closed chamber and how they need to be cleaned. Its been a wrap ever since. Learning as we go in life. Technology is moving warp speed.
A redaction on my hastily posted comment. While installing the insulation package furnished in the box, I discovered that a white plastic bag, "that I presumed contained insulation tape", actually contained the air filter with complete installation instruction printed on the packaging! What a DA. I should have known A.O. Smith had it all covered, having a previously installed 30 gal. LP HWH in 1994 and just know started leaking. 25 YEARS of service! Sorry A.O. Smith. I hope this rectifies the hastily posted comment.
Another ridiculous engineering shortcoming with these new fangled heaters is not seeing a need for legs on the heater of about 4 inches or so to get it up and away from the floor dust.
Handyman special on that gas line, geez. Shut off is too low so the installer said screw it, I'm just gonna swing a flex gas line under the control and call it a day. Who needs a drip leg, huh? Could've easily done it too. Get rid of that nipple and elbow and just put the flex adapter right into the shut off, swing the flex line over top the control into a tee and drip leg, done. Don't even want to know what the water lines and vent must look like up top if that's what the gas looks like.
I use a mirror to look in the porthole, no more standing on my head to see in there. Terrible design by Smith with intake on the floor, it sucks up hair, lint and anything else nearby
Exactly, bad design by AOSmith. With that being said overall when working they are good water heaters. I got tired of the pilot shutting down and voided the seal by removing the little glass window and solved the oxygen deprivation problem. I know, shouldn't do that but it works and every 6 months or so I give it a shot of compressed air to get rid of buildup on the metal filter with a little vacuuming maintenance.
Is there a plumber here who knows if I can get an A.O.Smith 50 gallon,40 000BTU water heater with a regular gas valve without the electronics with blinking led lights?Like a standard Robert Shaw valve?
Nice video! But what a stupid design and a step backwards. Not knowing there’s a problem until you realize you’ve been inhaling uncombusted fumes for however long. SMH
@@ChuckBarron just an fyi.. your using the vac attachment on the wrong side of the filter.. your trying to suck the dust thru the filter!! next time go from underside of the filter.. youll get much better results that way as that's where the dust is captured.. AO Smith even has a video that shows this
@@WPGinterceptor460Interceptor he's pushing the air from the top, vacuums suck from the bottom. either way the air flow is going the same direction, so it's just preference whether you want to push or suck (lol sounds about right).
Thank you! This helped me fix our 16-year old AO Smith water heater.
It took me about 45 minutes to do the job (but I'm a bit slow). I used both compressed air and our shop vac to clean the filter out. When I re-lit the water heater, it lit right up and hasn't burned out since (about 5 days ago).
Not to mention, the water is hotter than before this repair -- so it seems like the unit is functioning even better than before it went out.
Awesome!
I opened the bottom and used a leaf blower. It did the job. I didnt have any brush or air compressor. Fixed the problem, thanks for the video!
I used a brush and now I know that’s not enough. Thanks for the pressured air tip! You know your stuff!
You bet! Vac too.
I just got my water heater replaced about 5 months ago, during the end of summer. I got this model as well from your video. Just this month I’ve had the company come and see why it wasn’t giving me hot water. Found out it was this screen you are cleaning. Well it only lasted a week and I’m back to square one. I already dislike this water heat because of the amount of times I will have to open and clean out this screen.
I was a phone man for 30 years and went in a millions homes over the years to install and do phone repairs (this was before the cell phone days when your phone hung on a wall) but I digress.
What struck me about this video was that lady yammering on and on. That used to happen all the time and maybe its because they get nervous and just gotta talk about ALL kind of stuff while you're trying to work on stuff but wow some of them just never shut up. Lol...
Some things never change. God bless you ladies. Talk away.
I'm a lady and once they get to work, I leave 'em alone!
@@hanginlaundry360 ya know I actually didn't mind.. most of them were very nice.. and to be honest a lot of them were raising multiple pre-school age children and naturally that was their world for years on end. I get it. I think they enjoyed just talking with another adult. If they seemed nervous like they felt they had to say something but didn't know what I would try to put them at ease and ask 'So does grandma get the first call with your new phone?".. and they would laugh and say 'Ya.. how did you know!" I would say 'Grandma always gets the first call !'
Take care hanginlaundry! 👍😉
.
Thanks for making this video. It helped me in fixing my water heater.
Chuck, thanks for the videos! My pilot has been going out. I changed the thermocouple because I saw a diode looking thing cracked. The pilot lit and the burner turned on but eventually completely shutdown; burner and pilot. I ordered a thermostat because the settings (A, B, C and Very Hot) made no difference in temperature or shutting down the burner. However, I went down to inspect my pre-cleaner screen and did not find one. 14 year old water heater and no pre-cleaner screen. I looked under the water heater and the metal screen is completely clogged. Two dogs and my son doing wood work probably took its toll. I'll remove everything and thoroughly vacuum and clean with pressurized air. Again, very informative video.
Thanks Jeff. Good luck
I carry a Dewalt cordless wet/dry vac exactly for those two filters, found a vac attachment with a slim tube and a slim brush at end and worked perfectly for the internal screen filter.
I wonder if this is something a customer could do?
thank mun.
give it a go..
Thanks Chuck! The instructions with the "New boxed A.O. Smith LP HWH" had NOTHING detailed verbally or pictorially to solve this "Very Common" maintenance requirement. U Da Man!!
get er done daddy
God Bless You! Awesome, thanks for sharing your expertise 🙏🙏🙏
Love your homemade pex air tool. Perfect for this application. Nice job
many failures with a small shop vacuum, small crappy compressor to some pex magic.....always works now.......nice eye plumber
Awesome vid! This is the best method I've seen for cleaning flame arrestors! I cut a 4" circle in my flame arrestor B4 I installed it new. Voided warranty but will always have combustion air. Thanks for sharing this!
Nice!
@@ChuckBarron His house burned down about 6 months ago.
Thanks for showing me 😊
glad we could help
8:11 “all because somebody went and put a gasoline can by a water heater”. True story: When I was 5 years old I was down in the basement and apparently some how tipped over a can of gas or who knows maybe my dad set it too close to the water heater and never admitted it. Mom heard heard me start to scream, came downstairs and I was on fire. I’m 57 now and still have a completely scared right leg. I guess I was sort of “that guy”.
Funny thing is I just put in a new water heater last weekend and after reading the manual I seen the instructions to clean the perimeter filter every 3-4 months. I though to my self what a pain in the a.. that is going to be, and wondered why because my 30 year old water heater never had a filter that I knew of. Well now it makes sense that the gas chamber is sealed for safety now! Thanksfor sharing your videos.
Wow. Sorry to hear.
Very informative video, easy to watch close up shots.
good thanks
I have a wand attachment for my stinger shop vac that will clean that burn chamber nicely. Long reach. Works great.
awesome..
Great video. Could have used a little less of Janice in the background though. 🤪
yes early in youtube i used alot.....not so now. ty
Thanks for the detailed video
Glad it was helpful!
I could not understand this filter idea. Like water heaters work fine for like over a hundred years without ever needing a filter. The water heaters needed to be elevated in garages and any other place where flammable vapors from like a gasoline spill could be ignited by a water heater's pilot light. Even so, if there were enough fumes a fire explosion could accurr. It would make sense if there could be something to stop the water heater from igniting flammable gasses that may form around a water heater. That would be a flame arrester. That would be a thick screen on the air intake to the water heater flame box. This would allow air to enter but would snuff out a flame front from flammable vapors coming into contact with the water heater's flame. This is not a filter but flame arrester. Every thing works fine untill the arrester becomes clogged with junk. Everything makes sense to me now. Now for some some reason the industry needs to quit calling this a filter and use the correct term, a flame arrester.
That lady sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher.
Thanks bro. Idid not know time with you good and funny.
it's a funny trade some at times.
Six inch cresent works pretty good on those fittings.
yes...I actually like open end wrenches and was being lazy at this point..
I've watched a few of these filter cleaning vids and see tech blowing debris around the filter area and chamber. Why is the debris not vacuumed up?
Lady could chittychittty chitchat... I think I sound that way yoo I with contractors and it's how i learned how to save hundreds not having the furnace freaking blown on for me! Duuuuuumb. Thanks for this
Thank you.
666666666sg🤣zfgf😌👌😘😁😄
Thank you sir.
Thank You
Hi, I've noticed that my burner assembly doesn't have a bracket or slot to hold down the assembly. Is it normal or it's missing? The whole assembly is secured by just 2 screws at the front. Thanks
On these units you can just vacuum from the bottom of the filter without and disassembly.
Hello, yesterday my hubby fixed our water heater following your video. Thank you! Now when the when we’re using hot water the heater makes noises is that normal? Thank you!
It is normal when sediment builds up inside the tank from all the hard water. I'm sure if that is removed by flushing or vacuuming out your popping noises will go away.
Great video! People that give you thumbs down are jealous people because when you are done with your job you go surfing! Lol!😂
Pliers on the gas valve fittings makes me cringe. Not judging. You do you brother. You do fine work. I enjoy your videos. Interesting for a plumber from Kansas.
Ya....i hear ya....to lazy to get up and get my open end wrenches......good eye plumber....ha
Worried opening that compartment would void warranty on my less than 4 yr old heater.
From the window it appears the pilot ignites but only a few inches of the plate ignites. The blinking blue light appears to be
"heartbeat" meaning no errors. Exhaust is slightly warmer with no gas smell. Cust service line busy all day.
Any ideas?
Do it.. needs cleaning.
He said he’s gonna go outside and shake it.😁haha
lol.
Awesome, we have this same unit in our new to us house. I'll be on the look out for this if the pilot ever goes out.
nice
Good video...some guys would not have gone to the lengths you did and just sold a new heater.
Thanks George, I get a bunch of calls of pilots not staying lit. The old thinking was thermal coupling is bad. Then I got burned many years ago and finally called tech support and learned about the combustion proof closed chamber and how they need to be cleaned. Its been a wrap ever since. Learning as we go in life. Technology is moving warp speed.
Vapor proof, funny! Gas vapors are heavier than air, they sink to the floor where the "fresh air" intake is
No boom
Depends on the gas. Propane is heavier than air, natural gas is lighter.
Nice video. I can see where you freed the dust. Any tips on how you made that tool?
He used a piece of pex pipe with a pex crushed 90 on the end. Makes a nice tool for this job.
just some scraps from truck with some electrical tape.....on the air gun nozzle.....
also accessible from below
A redaction on my hastily posted comment. While installing the insulation package furnished in the box, I discovered that a white plastic bag, "that I presumed contained insulation tape", actually contained the air filter with complete installation instruction printed on the packaging! What a DA. I should have known A.O. Smith had it all covered, having a previously installed 30 gal. LP HWH in 1994 and just know started leaking. 25 YEARS of service! Sorry A.O. Smith. I hope this rectifies the hastily posted comment.
ao smith....luv you long time...ha
Great job, just want to know why you wouldn’t give the t/c a little rub down with sand paper?
Good point.
3:20 - drip
rut row.
Another ridiculous engineering shortcoming with these new fangled heaters is not seeing a need for legs on the heater of about 4 inches or so to get it up and away from the floor dust.
Can't get the human eye to even look in peep hole.
lol that customer really likes you.
I did plumbing for 15yrs. I became close like that to most of my customers. I kinda miss plumbing sometimes.
ya we worked together before
yes sir
Why not just vacuum it? Why blow the dust everywhere?
Guys what might be the problem if my water stays hot only for 10 min then goes luke warm
Gas or electric?
Chuck Barron electric
sounds like bad elements...if heater is old just replace heater...thats what I would do.
Handyman special on that gas line, geez. Shut off is too low so the installer said screw it, I'm just gonna swing a flex gas line under the control and call it a day. Who needs a drip leg, huh? Could've easily done it too. Get rid of that nipple and elbow and just put the flex adapter right into the shut off, swing the flex line over top the control into a tee and drip leg, done. Don't even want to know what the water lines and vent must look like up top if that's what the gas looks like.
true that!
I use a mirror to look in the porthole, no more standing on my head to see in there. Terrible design by Smith with intake on the floor, it sucks up hair, lint and anything else nearby
ya.....total mess to deal with
Exactly, bad design by AOSmith. With that being said overall when working they are good water heaters. I got tired of the pilot shutting down and voided the seal by removing the little glass window and solved the oxygen deprivation problem. I know, shouldn't do that but it works and every 6 months or so I give it a shot of compressed air to get rid of buildup on the metal filter with a little vacuuming maintenance.
Dope
🥪 🍺 🤫 🙏🏻
Is there a plumber here who knows if I can get an A.O.Smith 50 gallon,40 000BTU water heater with a regular gas valve without the electronics with blinking led lights?Like a standard Robert Shaw valve?
Nice video! But what a stupid design and a step backwards. Not knowing there’s a problem until you realize you’ve been inhaling uncombusted fumes for however long. SMH
lemme guess.. in the end she had no money, and you ended up in her bedroom! where she paid you
Lol. No sir. Paid in full.
@@ChuckBarron just an fyi.. your using the vac attachment on the wrong side of the filter.. your trying to suck the dust thru the filter!! next time go from underside of the filter.. youll get much better results that way as that's where the dust is captured.. AO Smith even has a video that shows this
@@WPGinterceptor460Interceptor he's pushing the air from the top, vacuums suck from the bottom. either way the air flow is going the same direction, so it's just preference whether you want to push or suck (lol sounds about right).